Ann: No fans in until end of the year
Leagues One and Two, and the Women’s Premier League, have been given the all-clear to restart training with a view to a resumption of games. GORDON PARKS speaks to Queen’s Park chief David Hunter and Kelty boss Barry Ferguson about the lay-off and their h
of next season. The process would see supporters selfadminister the saliva-based exam on the day of the match and use the negative result to gain entry.
Budge described it as “huge step forward” but added: “I’m planning on a fairly pessimistic basis and I don’t think we’ll see the beginning of supporters coming back even in August. Perhaps two or three months later than that.
“I don’t see full stadiums, potentially, ANY time next season unless there is a real change.
“Partial crowds aren’t the answer. We would lose money. I don’t particularly want small numbers in for a game unless it is part of a trial — as in, ‘If you can cope with this, then we move on.’
“So it’s not a question of getting a certain number back as quickly as possible, it’s about having a pathway to plan sensibly.”
Budge’s warning will set alarm bells ringing among a number of clubs who are reliant on gate receipts for survival. It comes after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon gave the Scottish lower leagues permission to come out of cold storage.
Budge said: “If we all had no supporters for the whole of next season we would all be in dire trouble.”
DAVID HUNTER admits keeping vigil on a close friend’s Covid-19 fight brought both a sense of perspective and hope to the successful resumption of SPFL Leagues One and Two.
The Queen’s Park president believes Tuesday night’s summit between teams searching for a plan to allow games to safely resume achieved a fragile accord with specifics to be outlined later this week.
The clubs, and those in SWPL One, have been given the green light by the Scottish government to return to training with players required be tested before matches.
With less than half of the 27-game campaign fulfilled so far in League Two and ambitious Queen’s Park sitting five points clear at the summit, a shrunken fixture card will now be ironed out.
But Hunter insists the hurdles can be overcome and he will never lose sight of the bigger picture of health and safety after watching a pal’s struggle for life.
He said: “We need to be mindful of the reality that the pandemic hasn’t gone away. The virus is still out there and the wellbeing of staff and players is everything. That’s why it’s been so tricky to try to reach conclusions.
“It’s been helluva frustrating but I’ve been only too well aware of the predicament which has faced the country.
“You sometimes feel a bit of a fraud, which isn’t really the right word but you feel football comes a long way behind real-life issues at this time.
“I’ve had a really close friend spend six weeks on a ventilator, we were getting daily updates on whether he’d pull through the night or not. He’s a young and relatively fit guy, so my sense of perspective throughout all of this has been pretty grounded.
“It has been a horrible time for everybody. It’s not lost on me the impact this has had on so many people from a bereavement point of view.”
A lower-leagues pandemic working group will now thrash out the finer details of the plan to get games back up and running and Hunter is confident the respective campaigns will be completed one way or another.
He said: “We are hoping to work out the specific details which enable both League One and Two to have a meaningful conclusion to the season.
“We will try to fit in as many games as we can while making sure we protect the welfare of the players as best we can.
“Things should be clearer at the end of this week but the 20 clubs have worked incredibly hard and collaboratively across the board to try to respect everyone’s view and predicaments.
“Hopefully, after the discussions on Tuesday, we have now reached a resolution which will work for everyone.
“We know it’s not everybody’s preference but it’s something the 20 clubs can all live with.
“A landing point was reached on League Two and hopefully we can bring that on line with League One and it will work going forward. Even though we’ve been given the nod to go back and we’ve been working between the 20 clubs to come up with a schedule and a plan which will hopefully accommodate that, we still have so many logistics to overcome.
“We have logistics of how to get to and from games, we have the testing to fit into the plan.
“I hope we will have a resolution on all of this by the end of this week.
“We are pretty much in favour of what’s been planned, a few club representatives had to go back to their clubs and boards to get ratification that what was being discussed was acceptable. I believe we just about got there on Tuesday night.
“We are delighted we’ve been afforded a path back, to sensibly and safely bring football back to our clubs.
“We started the season with our aspirations intact, as all clubs did, and it would be good if we can see things through to a successful conclusion but we are under no illusions of the difficulties.”
Queen’s Park president confident lower-league season will be concluded
TOMMY WRIGHT will have plenty of time for reflection during the 200-mile trip north from Ayrshire to Dingwall this weekend.
And a penny for his thoughts as McDiarmid Park comes into sight when the Kilmarnock bus makes its way through Perth on the journey up the A9.
The Northern Irishman will see the east stand which fans wanted named after him.
In his seven successful years in charge. Wright led the Perth club to their first major trophy in 130 years of existence with their Scottish Cup glory day against Dundee United at Parkhead in 2014.
And on Sunday the Betfred Cup joined the famous old trophy on the club’s honours list after their deserved win over Livingston at Hampden. Much of the foundations for that success were laid by Wright himself, with matchwinner Shaun Rooney even signed by the 57-year-old.
Wright felt it was time to leave St Johnstone 10 months ago despite leading the club to yet another top-six finish in the Premiership.
But nobody could blame him for wondering what might have been had he stuck around and been the man in charge for another trophy success at the weekend.
His former assistant Callum Davidson has taken to management like a duck to water by securing his first piece of silverware just eight months after taking over.
What Davidson inherited, thanks in no small part to his old gaffer, was far more attractive than when Wright himself went into at Rugby Park.
And that’s why the former keeper could be forgiven for wondering if he made the right choice as he attempts to stave off relegation and preserve Killie’s 28-year top-flight status.
They head to Dingwall on the back of a ninegame winless run. It’s also four years since they last won at the home of the Staggies – a point above secondbottom Killie having played a game less.
The situation Wright finds himself in is in complete contrast to when he took the reins at McDiarmid Park with Saints riding high following a third-place finish in the top flight.
Steve Lomas got a move to Millwall on the back of that and Wright, assistant to Lomas, picked up where he left off and led them to a stunning European win over Rosenborg.
At Kilmarnock he has
Who knows what will be in his mind when he passes McDiarmid Park again?
taken over a squad low in confidence following a run of five defeats on the spin.
The prospect of a cup final appearance like his old club Saints seems further away than ever right now but Saturday is his cup final as they take on a Ross County side who have won two of their last four, including against champions Celtic on their own patch.
Who knows what will be going through Wright’s mind as he passes through Perth?
However, there is plenty of time for contemplation on that long journey north – and it will feel even longer on the return if Killie don’t get the result they so desperately need.